We need Facebook back

Toxicity is steadily becoming the norm in Social Media. The proliferation of fake news outlets, backed by extremist political movements and conspiracy theorist cults, together with the increasing difficulty to catch people's attention is quite an explosive cocktail. The banalest of the conversations can get heated up and go viral very quickly, to the delight of the influencer who started it.

It is interesting to note that global trends favor social networks where anonymity is possible. Seniors are not willing to share all their personal information with these corporations anymore, and younger generations prefer spontaneity and ephemeral content. It's great that we are becoming more responsible consumers who care about privacy, but dealing with anonymous users online comes with a cost.

Twitter and WhatsApp have become hubs of political propaganda, misinformation, and conspiracy theory spreading. Instagram and TikTok are full of con artists, investment scams, and copyright infringement. Bullying and mobbing also take a whole new dimension in these networks. Aggressions are not limited to school or the office anymore. Victims can now be harassed 24/7 due to the anonymity that these services facilitate.

Maybe it's just me, but I kind of prefer how Facebook, Google+, Orkut, and other legacy social networks enforced ID verification. When giving your opinion while signing with your name and surname, you put your honorability at risk. Also, you can identify the source of a story or conspiracy theory and assess the credibility of its author. Of course, the goal of these companies was never to encourage ownership when sharing content online. But to do invasive profiling of their users so they can sell expensive targeted advertisement spaces.

I am a strong defender of freedom of speech. I see the value in Reddit, 4chan, IRC, and other communities where anonymity is encouraged. Of course, they have interesting use cases like whistleblowing, political dissent in autocratic nations, safe spaces for marginalized communities, and others. But I still prefer that mainstream media holds people accountable for their actions, even if it means dealing with a daily dose of hypocrisy and simps (as we are used to, here on Linkedin).